Forum:2018-01-26 (Friday)
Discussion for comic for . By the typing of your thumbs, something wiki this way comes. ---- Ah, you were right, William, they're still fighting. But it seems not to be because Jaron had an unexpected burst of good luck; it's because Bang is toying with him still. (I wonder if she's doing it partly to get back at Gil for telling her not to toy with him, thereby distracting her just enough for him to cut her.) Sadly, we seem to have gotten past the point when she tells Jaron what his problem "was"; I would have liked to hear that. :-) Does "this happens a lot" mean that Gil has lots of conversations with Europans of piratical descent? Or is Bang a superstar for a wider population than that? And, is it just me, or does the face of the Europan of (presumably) African descent look more like a pincushion than like a person? (Not saying black people IRL, or black people in GG, look like pincushions! Jaron, for example, sure doesn't. Just this one person.) Bkharvey (talk) 05:15, January 26, 2018 (UTC) : Perhaps I'm just not around pincushions enough to see the parallel, but what qualities do you see that inspired that comparison? Are you talking about her extra-wide nose? LittleAlvinMaker (talk) 06:48, January 26, 2018 (UTC) :: The nose, and the almost perfect circularity of her face, and the fact that we never see an opening between top and bottom teeth (kind of like that plush wasp eater...), and... I'm not sure, exactly. I just thought "pincushion" right away. Bkharvey (talk) 20:19, January 26, 2018 (UTC) : Bang quite obviously is an alpha-piratical. One who evidently iduces a near religous fervor in similarly-minded people. Can you honestly claim to be surprised? Or maybe it's an instinctual survival trait--worship her, or risk being at the wrong end of a pointy thing. Wait--would that actually work? ''Dmbreakey (talk) 17:55, January 26, 2018 (UTC) :: Oh, I totally get why these pirates are reacting that way to her. My question was whether non-pirates do too, because Gil says it happens "a lot" and I can't imagine he has that many conversations with pirates (other than Bang herself). Bkharvey (talk) 20:19, January 26, 2018 (UTC) Oh, P.S., why does Tarvek think interviewing the Knight will be useful? He already knows it was Tweedle who sent them; what else can he learn? If Tweedle wants people to view him as a king, he has to be living in public, not in hiding. I suppose the Knight might have some tactical information about secret entrances to the palace or something... Oh, and the "woof?" is really funny, although I'm not sure if the Knight is displaying both a lot of self-awareness and a tactical mastery of self-deprecating humor, or just betraying his doggy essence. Funny either way. Bkharvey (talk) 05:22, January 26, 2018 (UTC) : Gil is wise enough (most of the time) to know he doesn't know everything. You don't lightly pass up the opportunity to question someone. (Outside of court that is. In a court it's different--you don't lightly ask a question you don't know the answer to.) Argadi (talk) 15:22, January 26, 2018 (UTC) :: I think you mean Tarvek... I'm not surprised he agrees with questioning the Knight, but am wondering why he expects this interrogation to be "'very''' useful." Bkharvey (talk) 20:19, January 26, 2018 (UTC) :Note that Tarvek switches to Madness Place text bubbles when he says "Nice Doggie". I think he's minionizing the last surviving sparkhound. Additionally, the usage of Madness Font there lends evidence that the lack of it for Gil despite his "stuck-in-madness-place" state previously is deliberate.--MadCat221 (talk) 20:30, January 26, 2018 (UTC) ::"Minionizing," nice word. :-) But this confuses me, because presumably the Knights have already been minionized by Tweedle, and if switching allegiance was that easy, we'd have seen it happen a lot already. Certainly the Knight can be made to be afraid, although in this case probably the sword point on his face is at least as convincing as Tarvek's voice. In the canonical example, Wooster was made afraid by Gil's voice because his allegiance is still to England and Albia. Bkharvey (talk) 01:45, January 27, 2018 (UTC) ::: All it takes is a more forceful (and probably more proximal) exertion of Sparky willpower. Remember how Gil minionized Wooster. --MadCat221 (talk) 21:21, January 27, 2018 (UTC) :::: My point is, I don't believe Gil did minionize Wooster. Gil frightened ''Wooster by threatening to melt England and destroy Her Undying Majesty -- whose minion he was and remains. Bkharvey (talk) 00:08, January 28, 2018 (UTC) :::: I think we've already established that I catch on slowly, so I hope nobody will be surprised that I'm just getting around to wondering about this, but I can't recall Agatha ever "minionizing" anyone, although she has zillions of loyal minions. Am I forgetting an example? She certainly ''could do it if she chose, but she's just a nice person despite being a spark. If I'm right about this, given the name of the comic, are we meant to think that she's a nice person because she's a girl? I mean, Gil and Tarvek are pretty ''nice, but neither is above throwing his weight around. Oh, I guess Lucrezia is a counterexample, but which of them is the exception? Bkharvey (talk) 00:51, January 28, 2018 (UTC) ::::: Oops, . Bkharvey (talk) 08:10, January 30, 2018 (UTC) Is it just me... or has Gil managed to disengage his Spark from constant Stage 1 Madness Place? --MadCat221 (talk) 05:46, January 26, 2018 (UTC) : Here's hoping that's the case, and the Foglios didn't just forget to give him a Sparky bubble. --Geoduck42 (talk) 05:54, January 26, 2018 (UTC) : Well, for one thing, he seems to know, now, where Agatha is (it's unlikely he could have found out where ''Tarvek is without some context), and for another, perhaps he's had some sleep, which I think was a big part of the problem. Bkharvey (talk) 05:55, January 26, 2018 (UTC) : The last (and only) time Gil canonically left his permanent fugue state since Act 2 was when he got Tarvek out of the time stop. He was back into the Madness Place right after Tarvek was kidnapped, when he declared he was going to get him back. Now he's been back out of fugue for three pages, the minute he got Tarvek back. It's not an accident. It's a Tarvek-induced state of sanity ^^ MasakoRei (talk) 07:22, January 26, 2018 (UTC) ::Maybe Tarvek's ability to keep control of his madness extends to people nearby and not just himself? Agge.se (talk) 08:42, January 26, 2018 (UTC) ::: There are lots of theories about that. My personal one is that Gil subconsciously shares the load of having to save the world with Tarvek. When Gil has Tarvek, he doesn't have to do everything and think of everything alone, so he doesn't have to be in overdrive all the time. Other people have theorised that Tarvek always had a calming anti-Spark effect on Gil, because losing Tarvek was what triggered Gil's breakthrough in the first place. (Gil broke through at eight and his breakthrough project was Zoing - a friend, supposedly to replace the one he'd just lost). The theory is that breakthrough conditions have a lasting effect on the mind. Therefore losing Tarvek again after they've become friends again is a fugue trigger for Gil. And getting him back calms him down. MasakoRei (talk) 09:19, January 26, 2018 (UTC) ::::All of it sounds likely. Is it said that the spark breakthrough is triggered by a traumatic experience or that the breakthrough is a traumatic experience? I am thinking that psychological trauma might trigger it. Agge.se (talk) 14:29, January 26, 2018 (UTC) ::::Ah, thank you, another thing to add to the "Tarvek and Gil" section of Tarvek's wiki page! Bkharvey (talk) 20:19, January 26, 2018 (UTC) ::::Oh, we don't have to suppose it's not conscious. He says , "I want Sturmvoraus out of Mechanicsburg. He knows more about Lucrezia's work than anybody. Let him help clean up this mess." Bkharvey (talk) 04:17, January 28, 2018 (UTC) ::: I think this effect may only work on Gil. Colette was right next to him during her and also later ran the whole gamut of Madness Place stages with him in proximity. --MadCat221 (talk) 15:07, January 26, 2018 (UTC) So, I get it that Bang's having fun, but all of our past interaction with her has shown that she'd much rather kill people than talk. Isn't it a little surprising that she isn't taking Jaron up on his invitation to kill him? (Right away, I mean. I know she'll get around to it.) Have we ever before seen her postpone killing someone other than to use the threat of killing to make them answer questions? (And even in that case, people like Gil and Master Payne keep having to remind her!) Bkharvey (talk) 02:04, January 27, 2018 (UTC) Also, "She stabbed my mom once!" I don't think Pincushion would have expressed herself in quite those words if the mom hadn't survived the encounter. Have we ever before known Bang to stab someone other than fatally? We know at least one case in which she said ''she'd attack someone non-fatally but couldn't bring herself to do it. Bkharvey (talk) 16:19, January 27, 2018 (UTC) : If you're referring to Zulenna, Bang didn't say "non-fatal", she said she "wouldn't hurt" her. And then killed her (in theory) painlessly. And she stuck a bunch of small knives in Tweedle, which she probably didn't expect to kill him. --Geoduck42 (talk) 19:56, January 27, 2018 (UTC) :: Tweedle? Are you talking about the first panel of ? Now that you mention it, I don't understand what she was thinking. Messing around with him ended up costing her her hatrack. Why ''didn't she just kill him? Bkharvey (talk) 21:27, January 27, 2018 (UTC) :::: She likes torturing people. She's admitted it cheerfully, when Other asked her for help escaping Klaus. --Geoduck42 (talk) 17:52, January 28, 2018 (UTC) ::::: Does anyone know the date of that reference? I am trying to keep the story straight at this point, and every reference point helps. Thanks! LittleAlvinMaker (talk) 06:43, January 29, 2018 (UTC) ::::: ::::: Bkharvey (talk) 21:40, January 31, 2018 (UTC)